Vocabulary Learning

introduction

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What is “a Vocabulary”? “A vocabulary” is not necessarily a word. In fact, “vocabulary” is uncountable. Many different kinds of vocabulary items: __________ __________ - e.g. cat, today, went __________ __________ – phrases that consist of more

than one word and do not usually change, e.g. ladies and gentlemen, in other words __________ __________ – phrases in which most parts will stay the same but there is variation, e.g. on one’s own, It has come to one’s attention that…

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What is “a Vocabulary”? (cont’d) __________ __________ – two or three words

with the 1st word a verb and the other word(s) usually prepositions. With different prepositions, even phrasal verbs with the same verb have different meanings, e.g. call off, call back, pass away __________ – phrases of which the meaning is NOT the sum of the meanings of the individual words. Most phrasal verbs are idiomatic. Examples: break the ice, for good, kick the bucket 3

What does it mean to know a word? __________ __________ – Most English words

have multiple meanings __________ and __________ – refer to the table below Word Denotation Connotation (basic (idea meaning) associated) thin skinny

not overweight neutral image not overweight

negative image

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What does it mean to know a word? (cont’d) __________ _______________ __________ __________ __________ – noun, verb,

adjective, adverb… __________ – affecting whether your English sounds native __________ – “I’m sorry to hear that your mother passed away” vs. “I’m sorry to hear that your mother died” vs. “I’m sorry to hear that your mother kicked the bucket” vs. “I’m sorry to hear that the bucket was kicked by your mother” 5

What does it mean to know a word? (cont’d) __________ One of the most important aspects of

knowing a word for nonnative learners A collocation is a word or phrase that naturally and often occurs before, after, or very near the vocabulary item.

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What does it mean to know a word? (cont’d) Collocation E.g. “Commit” has three different

meanings: (1) do or make, (2) dedicate resources, or (3) be dedicated to. The most common collocations for commit are all types of crimes: e.g. commit murder, commit suicide. Thus, for the 1st meaning, “commit” actually means “do or make something __________”.

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What does it mean to know a word? (cont’d) Collocation The more common the vocabulary item is (e.g. “take”), the

more the collocations will be (e.g. take ______ __________, take __________, take __________ __________ …). Practice of understanding and using collocations is needed because:  1.

Frequency - Many common words have many collocations.  2. Difficulty – Often, we cannot fully understand the meanings of a word unless we also know its collocations, e.g. take part in.  3. __________ – It’s a fast way to expand your vocabulary.

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What does it mean to know a word? (cont’d) __________ Understanding prefixes and suffixes is another fast

way to expand your vocabulary.  According to Richard E. Hodges: "If you were to examine

the 20,000 most used English words, you would find that about 5,000 of them contain prefixes and that 82% (about 4,100) of those words use one of only fourteen different prefixes out of all the available prefixes in the language.“ The 14 prefixes: ab-, ad-, be-, com-, de-, dis-, en-, ex-,

in-, pre-, pro-, re-, sub-, un-.

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What does it mean to know a word? (cont’d) __________ Some inflectional suffixes: -s, -ed, -ing,

-en, -er, -est, -n't Some derivational suffixes: Suffix

Example

Suffix

-ize/ -ise

-less

-ly

-ness

-able/ -ible

-ism

-ful

-al

Example

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A few important points about vocab. learning from experts In learning English, vocabulary is __________

less important than grammar or other areas. Efficiency of implicit learning (i.e. learning vocabulary by reading) is low. Direct teaching and recycling of vocabulary is important. Using word lists to learn can be quite useful. The use of translations (i.e. Chinese) to learn new vocabulary can be effective. There is no one way that is better than others. 11

Independent Vocabulary Learning Strategies Good for highly-motivated learners for words (e.g.

less common words) not covered by implicit learning and direct teaching Promote learner autonomy __________ __________ – taking note of new words and their meanings, collocations, antonyms/ synonyms __________ __________ – identifying the part of speech and prefix/ suffix (if any), examining context, guessing the meaning and finally checking the guess 12

How are we going to learn vocabulary this year? Homework: 1. using collocations in Sentence Making homework

2. putting down detailed information of vocabulary items in TV/ Radio News homework Warm-up activity about vocabulary at the beginning of English lessons: Day 1 – Hangman (a class game about spelling and usage) Day 2 – Quick Spell (a group game about spelling) Day 5 – Dictogloss (a group game about spelling, grammar, listening, note-taking and discussion) Day 4 & 7 – Victation (a test of everything about vocabulary)

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How are we going to learn vocabulary this year? (cont’d) Word lists used:

List General Service List (GSL)

Words 2000 words that are of general service to learners (i.e. most common words)

Academic 570 word families Word List that occur in a (AWL) variety of academic text

Notes Published in 1953 Based on frequency Published in 1998 Based on frequency

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